Article conveying, separating and stacking apparatus



March 26, 1968 J. GRINER 3,374,875

ARTICLE CONVEYING, SEPARATING AND STACKING APPARATUS Original Filed Dec.51, 1963 CON DITION NO cmwaen 3 l/ BAKERS BAND OVEN a;

I BREAKER 6 v CONDITIONING CHAMBER m'fi LED

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INVBVTOR. ARTHUR J BIZ/NEH A T Ta zan United States Patent 3,374,875ARTICLE CONVEYING, SEPARATING AND STACKING APPARATUS Arthur J. Griner,Wyckotf, N.J., assignor to National Biscuit Company, New York, N.Y., acorporation of New Jersey Original application Dec. 31, 1963, Ser. No.334,796. Divided and this application Dec. 21, 1966, Ser. No. 603,485

8 Claims. (Cl. 198-35) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for handlingrelatively flat articles comprising conveyor means for continuouslyfeeding a column of articles onto a stationary inclined platform downwhich the articles slide for on-edge stacking on a slower deliveryconveyor positioned a short distance below the lower end of theplatform, and rotating cam members projecting through slots in theplatform to lift the articles for permitting shingling thereof as theadvance of the thus lifted articles is retarded by the deliveryconveyor.

This application is a divisionof my pending parent application Ser. No.334,796, filed Dec. 31, 1963, for Method and Apparatus for HandlingTablet-Like Articles Such as Biscuits.

The present invention relates to the automatic handling of relativelyfiat articles, such as biscuit in the form of crackers, cookies and thelike, and more particularly to apparatus for continuously conveying sucharticles from a bakers band oven while breaking, stacking andconditioning the same for automatic packaging.

A main purpose of the invention is to provide means for automaticallyadvancing'and handling baked goods and comparable products between acontinuously producing bake oven or other production apparatus andpackaging machinery, leaving only occasional adjustments to be made byattendants in charge of the equipment.

The apparatus of the present invention comprises means in novelcombination for continuously conveying, breaking and shingling orstacking articles edgewise.

By way of example, the invention is particularly suited to and isillustrated and described herein in connection with the handling ofcrackers or biscuit baked in a continuous line oven wherein the biscuitare baked and emerge on a continuous moving belt conveyor in the form oflarge sheets which are longitudinally and transversely scored to dividethe same into biscuit-size areas. The scored sheets issuing from theoven are first broken along the transverse scores to form transversestrips of unseparated biscuit which are shingled or stacked on edge bynovel means in a novel manner and conveyed through a conditioning zonewherein the baked strips may be kept warm to prevent too rapid coolingor, if desired, may be cooled by forced air circulation, depending uponthe nature and requirements of the product.

It is, then, an object of the present invention to provide novel meansfor shingling or stacking relatively flat articles while the same arebeing continuously conveyed. The above and further objects and novelfeatures of the invention will more fully appear from the followingdetail description when the same is read in connection with theaccompanying drawings. It is to be expressly understood, however, thatthe drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are notintended as a definition of the limits of the invention.

In the drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to like partsthroughout the several views,

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the general 3,374,875 PatentedMar. 26, 1968 organization of conveying, breaking and stacking equipmentfor carrying out the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in elevation of the equipment shown in FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrammatic side elevation and plan views,respectively, showing the equipment of FIG. 1 in more detail and on alarger scale.

Referring to the drawings which exemplify one form of apparatusembodying the invention, it will be seen that in FIG. 1, which is adiagrammatic top plan view, there is shown a band oven 1 which accordingto standard practice in the baking industry consists of a long bakingchamber of successive tunnel sections rising from a suitable basesupport. An endless baking band 2 is trained over a driving drum 3 atthe entrance end of the oven. The upper run of band 2 extends throughthe heated section of the oven chamber, whereas the lower run returnsbeneath the heated section.

An endless dough sheet 4 of a width sufficient to cover the band 2, savefor small margins at the side edges, is fed continuously into theentrance end of the oven. The dough sheet, having its top surface diestamped or scored transversely and longitudinally prior to baking inorder to define thereon individual crackers of rectangular shape, willupon completion of baking be discharged from the exit end of the oven inthe form of a baked sheet 5. The baked sheet is then transported by theconveyor belt through a strip breaker 6 which comprises revolvingrollers or brushes 7 (FIG. 3) exerting pressure upon the baked sheet asit is transported over a portion of the conveyor system that variessharply from the normal plane of travel. This may be effected by adeflector plate 8 positioned beneath the revolving rollers or brushes 7.After passing under the latter, the leading edge of the baked sheetengages the lower portion of a roller 9 mounted generally above a shortdrop-off from plate 8 to a belt conveyor 10 to direct the leading edgeof the sheet downwardly. At this point, the transverse rows of biscuitforming the baked sheet are caused by tension from the change of theirnormal path of travel to bend and snap off along their transversefrangible score lines to form strips 11 consisting usually of aboutsixteen crackers connected to each other at their side edges.

The strips 11 lying flat and preferably in slightly spaced relation maybe conveyed through a sprayer and thence to novel mechanism for tiltingand shingling the strips with the upper surfaces remaining uppermost,and the lead edges engaging the conveyor. From belt 10', the separatedstrips 11 are delivered to a plate or slide 12 which preferably but notnecessarily slopes sufficiently downward to cause the strips to slidedown the same at a speed comparable to the speed at which they aredelivered by belt 10.

Near its bottom edge slide 12 has a plurality of transversely spacedlongitudinal slots 13. A plurality of cam discs 14 are mounted forrotation with a driven transverse shaft and extend a short distanceupwardly through slots 13. The cam discs rotate clockwise as viewed inFIG. 3 at a speed in excess of the speed at which the cracker stripsadvance down slide 12 so that each strip is engaged by a plurality ofthe cam discs and kicked upwardly to permit the following strip to movebeneath it and thus into underlapping or shingled relation therewith.After passing the cam discs 14 the strips 11 areof the shingled stripson conveyor 15. The central portion of apron 16 above cam discs 14functions to limit the upward movement of the crackers when the same arelifted in response to engagement thereof by the cam discs. A pluralityof fiat springs 18 or the like may be pivoted at 19 and suspended toengage apron 16 and hold the same in position.

Conveyor 15, which is preferably a porous metal belt, may, if desired,convey the stacked or shingled strips 11 through a conditioning chamber20 through which either heated or cooled air or other gas may becirculated by suitable means, such as blowers or exhaust fans. The airmay be circulated in either direction through the chamber and hence, maypass either upwardly or downwardly through the belt and between thecrackers or other articles thereon.

Although only a single embodiment of the article handling apparatuscomprehended by the invention has been illustrated in the drawings anddescribed in the foregoing specification, it is to be expresslyunderstood that the invention is not thus limited. Various changes andmodifications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of theinvention will now be apparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for handling relatively flat articles comprising firstconveyor means for continuously advancing a column of said articleslying fiat, a stationary slide plate having a downwardly sloping,substantially planar upper surface for receiving said articles lyingflat at its upper end from said first conveyor means, said plate havingtransversely spaced longitudinal slots therein near the lower endthereof across the path of said articles, second conveyor means forreceiving and continuously advancing said column of articles from thelower end of said plate in closely stacked on-edge relation at a slowerspeed than said first conveyor means, rotatable disc-like cams mountedbelow said plate having radially projecting lobes spaced around theperipheries thereof and extending through said slots with only smallportions of the radially outermost tips of said lobes projecting abovethe upper surface of the plate as the cams rotate, said articlesreceived at the upper end of said plate being free to slide asubstantial distance down the upper surface of the plate into contactwith said tips, and means for rotating said cams in a direction and at aspeed such that said cam lobe tips projecting above the plate move inthe same direction as said articles and at a speed sufiiciently inexcess of the speed of said articles sliding freely down the surface ofthe slide plate that each said article including both the leading andtrailing edge portions thereof is cammed sharply upwardly away from thesurface of the plate by the impact of said tips against the lowersurface of the article, whereby the leading edge portion of each articleslides beneath and is lifted upwardly into lapped relation and contactwith the preceding upwardly cammed article between the latter and saidcams.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the receiving end of thesecond conveyor means is a short distance below the discharge end ofsaid slide, whereby the articles are deposited on said second conveyormeans in stacked on-edge relation.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, comprising means resting on andslidably engaging the top edges of said articles as the same move intoposition on the second conveyor.

4. Apparatus for conveying and stacking relatively flat articlescomprising first conveyor means for continuously advancing a column ofsaid articles lying flat at a constant speed, a downwardly sloping ramphaving a planar upper surface for receiving at its upper end saidarticles lying flat from said first conveyor means, the inclination ofthe upper surface of said ramp being sufl'lciently steep that saidarticles slide freely down the same in column under the force ofgravity, said ramp having a longitudinal slot therein in the path ofsaid articles, a rotatable member mounted below said ramp and having camlobes spaced around the periphery thereof to extend through said slotwith only a small portion of the radially outermost tips of said lobesprojecting above the upper surface of said ramp as the member rotates,means for rotating said member in a direction and at a speed such thatsaid projecting cam lobe tips move in the same direction as saidarticles and at a speed sufiiciently in excess of the speed of saidarticles sliding down the ramp that each article is kicked sharplyupwardly from the ramp and said member by the impact of said tipsagainst the lower surface of the article as the latter passes over themember to thereby permit the leading edge portion of the next article inthe column sliding down the ramp to slide beneath and thus into lappedrelation with the next preceding article in the column, and secondconveyor means for receiving the column of lapped articles from thelower end of said ramp and for continuously advancing the same at aretarded speed.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 4 comprising means positioned abovesaid rotatable member to limit the upward movement of the articleskicked upwardly by said member.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 4,. wherein an appreciable portion ofthe lower end of said ramp is disposed between said rotatable member andthe receiving end of said second conveyor means.

7. In apparatus for shingling generally fiat articles as the same areadvanced as a column of articles, a downwardly sloping platform havingan upper substantially planar surface, the inclination of which issufiiciently steep that said articles lying flat thereon will slidefreely down the same in column under the force of gravity, said platformhaving an opening adjacent the lower end thereof in the path of saidarticles, rotatable means comprising a disc-like member mounted belowsaid platform and having a series of cam lobes on the periphery thereof,said lobes projecting through said opening to only a short distanceabove the upper surface of the platform, and means to rotate said meansat a speed such that the speed of the tips of said lobes appreciablyexceeds the speed at which said articles slide down the upper surface ofthe platform and over said tips, and conveyor means for receiving saidarticles from the lower end of said platform and for continuouslyadvancing said articles at a lesser speed than that at which thearticles slide down the platform.

8. Apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein said platform has aplurality of transversely spaced openings and said rotatable meanscomprises a shaft having a plurality of said disc-like membersprojecting through said openings, each member having a plurality ofcircumferentially spaced cam lobes.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10,929 5/1854 Mitchell 2147 X1,501,285 7/1924 Lawrence 198-35 X 2,596,228 5/1952 Fletcher 214-7 X2,706,053 4/1955 Doller 2l47 3,212,621 10/1965 Daugherty 198-30 EDWARDA. SROKA, Primary Examiner.

